Chiropractic Sport Institute

Chiropractic Sports Institute was started with the sole vision of providing the best and most advanced chiropractic treatment to the greater Conejo Valley area.

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Barriers to your golf game!!!

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By: Dr. Amir Mahmud D.C., C.C.S.P.

I am going to take you all through a series of 4 blogs, exploring the different barriers that can affect your performance in a golf game. Whether you are a beginner, amateur or a professional you can benefit from these tips. So lets jump right into it. Here are the 4 key barriers that will hinder your performance in golf.

1. Flexibility
2. Postural Instability
3. Swing mechanics
4. Environmental/Mental performance

We are going to focus on flexibility today!!!

Did you know that lack of golf specific flexibility can put you at a risk of getting injured? When we talk about inflexibility we are talking more than just muscle tightness. Inflexibility includes muscle tightness, ligament and tendon restriction, and fascial restriction. Fascia is a type of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding them togather. It works the same way a surround wrap works when you wrap your sandwhiches. When the fascia in your body tightens up it can pull various structures in your body in different ways and compress them up to 2000 pounds per square inch.

Now that we have a general view of what can tighen up in your body, lets get more specific on various structures and body parts that we need to focus on in order to prevent injures and improve our golf game.

Leg Adductors: Generally speaking there are 3 adductor muscles in your body. Adductor Brevis, Longus and Magnus. Your adductor muscles are activated as you transition from the top of your backswing to the start of your downswing. If your adductors are too tight you will rotate too quickly and this generally means you will come over the top of the ball.

Hamstrings: The hamstrings are compsed of 3 muscles: Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus, and Biceps Femoris. Due to its attachment, a tight hamstring can alter your lumbar spine and pelvic motion. As a result of this you will have less motion in your spine and that directly relates to decreased club head speed.

Calfs: The calfs are composed of 2 muscles: Gastrocnemius and Soleus. When these muscles are tight there is tendency to move the torso up and down during a swing. ( Golf professionals refer to this as an inbality to maintain a consistent “spine angle”). Due to the tight calf muscles you also have a tendency to “toe up” during the back swing.

Chest and Shoulder: Tightness in your chest and shoulder can restrict you from extending your forward arm to climb past 9:00 on the vertical plane line during the back swing.

Paraspinal muscles: These groups of muscles are responsible for lateral bending and rotation of the spine.

• Lateral bending is essential for maintaining the extended arm parallel to the plane line. If you can’t laterally bend, your torso will move up and down as you swing your club.
• Spinal rotation is essential for generating club head speed. The higher your club head speed, the farther the ball will go. You need to be able to rotate your spine equally in both directions.

Psoas: This muscle is your primary hip flexor. When it is too tight it will initiate the quadriceps muscles during walking. As a result it will fatigue them much faster. A tight Psoas muscle can also affect your pelvic and lumbar motion due to its attachments.

Now that you know which muscles tend to get tight, the next step is to know which muscles are weak and need to be strengthened. That will be the topic of our next blog. If you are interested in having your posture and swing evaluated for biomechanical faults contact me and I will gladly walk you through the process.

Dr. Amir Mahmud is a Sports Chiropractors at Chiropractic Sports Institute. He is an expert at evaluating and treatment of golf injuries. If you are interested in having your swing evaluated call Dr. Amir at the Westlake office (805) 371-0737 and he will gladly help you out.

Want to hit your ball farther on the golf course this holiday season?

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To all you golfers, would you like to get a Structural and Functional evaluation of your Golf swing? If so, Dr. Amir and Dr. Ed are going through a Golf Injury Certification program and they will gladly help you out. Keep in mind we are not here to change your swing, but to evaluate your posture through a comprehensive exam in order to find faults in your biomechanics in order to prevent injures and improve your performance.

The evaluation will include the following points:

1. Flexibility
2. Posture
3. 3 Point Swing Analysis
4. Corrective stretches and exercises

During our evaluation we use a Swing-Light Trainer to provide a visual extension of the club shaft when the club shaft is behind your body. This will allow us to evaluate if you are too steep, too flat or right on the plane line. We will also measure various club head speeds with a Power Meter at the time of evaluation and then 4 weeks after you have worked on the corrective stretches and exercises. We compare your initial measurements to the standards for both amateur and professional golfers. This will give us a baseline of where you stand. We then re-measure your club head speed at the one-month point to see how much you have improved. As you golfers know, increased club head speed means increased distance on the course.

Combining the findings from your postural evaluation, flexibility, and swing analysis will allow us to find your biomechanical faults that WILL eventually predispose you to injuries. By correcting these faults we can prevent injuries from happening and keep you on the course.

If you are interested in having your swing evaluated call Dr. Amir at the Westlake office (805) 371-0737 or Dr. Ed at the Moorpark office (805) 531-1188 and they will gladly help you out.

Golf Like the Pros!!!

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By: Dr. Amir Mahmud

Summer is here and we are all ready to play in the sun. Whether your sport is golf, soccer, beach volleyball, lacross or tennis you have to prepare properly in order to avoid injuries and improve your game. Today we are going to take a closer look at golf. Did you know that there are 40 million golfers worldwide and out of those, 28 million live in the USA? With so many people interested in this growing sport let’s see how you can improve your game and what you can do to avoid injuries.

The first step you need to take if you are just starting out in this sport is to take lessons. You need to have a trained professional teach you the basics and then you can go from there. The point of this article is not to teach you how to play golf but to teach you what to do in order to avoid injuries and improve your game. So, let’s jump right into it.

There are 4 barriers to proper performance in golf:

Flexibility:

If you are lacking proper flexibility your performance will decrease and you are at a higher risk of getting injured.

Flexibility, especially golf specific flexibility can give you a huge advantage over a person who is not flexible. You want to have full active range of motion in your paraspinals, hamstrings, hip adductors, calfs, Shoulder girdle muscles (rotator cuff and pecs), wrist and forearms. Let’s take a closer look at a few of these muscles groups and how restrictions in them can affect your game

i. Paraspinals: Paraspinal muscles are involved in spinal rotation: The more spinal rotation that you have the more club head speed you can generate and therefore the farther you can hit the ball.

ii. Hamstrings: Hamstrings are closely related to your pelvis due to their attachment at the Ischial Tuberosity. If you have tight hamstrings the rotation in your pelvis and lumbar spine will be decreased. As a result, your club head speed can be decreased.

iii. Hip Adductors: Your adductors are activated during the transition of weight transfer from the top of the backswing to the start of the down swing. If you have tight adductors it can cause you to “come over the top” during the downswing.

iv. Calf muscles: Tight calf muscles can cause you to move your torso up and down when you are swinging your club. This can significantly affect your accuracy.

So now you can see how flexibility is essential for improved performance. Also keep in mind that if you are interested in hitting longer and more powerful shots you need to increase your club head speed and the only way to increase your club head speed is to increase your range of motion.

Postural Instability:

Any type of postural instability can predispose you to injuries. When we are talking about stability we are mainly looking at 3 factors.

1. Proper alignment of the back knee over the back ankle
2. Strong Gluteal muscles which will help with the stability of the hips and knees
3. Quadriceps muscles that can support the transfer of body weight into the back leg at the top of the back swing


Swing Mechanics:

The swing mechanics is where your golf instructor comes into play. If you have improper swing mechanics you WILL eventually have some sort of injury. The most common type of injury for your average golfer tends to be lower back sprains/strains and elbow injuries from repetitive hyperextension at the end phase of the swing.

Environmental performance:

This category can be broken down into two sections

1. Mental aspect:

Inability to concentrate during your swings is what causes most of the frustrations that golfers have. The ability to focus right before striking the ball is what separates professionals from amateurs. Here is how the Pro’s do it. Right before they strike the ball they hold an image of the target in their mind. Now you might think that you are doing the same. But if you think about it you are also thinking about your body position, trying to keep your eyes on the ball, making sure you don’t bend your elbow, making sure your legs are properly placed. All of that can distract you from the main goal, which is hitting the target.

2. Environmental aspect:

You might not have had thought of this but the environment plays a big role in your performance on the golf course. Anything from pollen in the air, the pesticide that is used on the course and the temperature/ humidity can all affect the way your body reacts. For example, if your body reacts to an external stimulus and your allergies act up then your muscles WILL react and tighten up. As a result you will not be able to swing with your full potential due to the restricted range of motion.

If you are interested in having your swing evaluated come on in and we will gladly help you. Keep in mind we are not here to change or fix your swing but we are here to find any predispositions to injuries.

Dr. Amir Mahmud is a Sports Chiropractor at CSI (Chiropractic Sports Institute) in Westlake Village. Dr. Amir has vast experience working with athletes both professional and Amateur. He is the current Team Doctor for the Newbury Park HS Lacrosse team, Ventura Country men’s Rugby team, and travels with the Mobile CSI Sports Medicine team caring for athletes across southern California. He can be reached at (805) 371-0737. www.gotcsi.com

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